WilCo Animal Shelter sees influx of animals after summer storms

It's been a busy summer for the Williamson County Regional Animal Shelter in Georgetown.

"We've had more problems this year with the storms that have been happening. All the different rain storms and the fences being knocked down. More dogs become stray," said kennel manager Joel Hess.

Hess says since May 1st, they've taken in around 880 dogs. Around 400 have been adopted. They're using all the space they have available to house these animals.

WilCo is "no kill"...but last week they had to make a list of dogs with behavior problems...at risk of euthanization.

But the community came through. Some were adopted, some were fostered...none were euthanized.

"Some of our volunteers actually went as far as to create pages for them on Craig's List and kind of market them themselves...of why these dogs are great and why they needed to be saved," Hess said.

Another problem -- the shelter has been short on veterinary staff. So instead of 2 to 3 surgery days per week, they've only been able to neuter and spay animals one day a week. On Wednesday, Hess says 53 animals were scheduled to go under the knife.

"Our doctor has been here since about 9:00 this morning," he said.

So some animals have had to stay days after being adopted.

"When they stay, then we have to care for them longer, we have to give them medications longer, it increases the chances that they might pick something up. So having a full time veterinarian or having volunteer veterinarians coming in to help us with all of our surgeries and caring for animals would actually really lighten the load," Hess said.

Jennifer Kneffler adopted a terrier mix on Monday for her daughter Madison's birthday. They picked her up Wednesday after the surgery.

The two say they didn't mind waiting a few days to pick her up. They're just glad they could save a dog.

"I think that's awesome because that's the reason we came here to the animal shelter to get her a puppy...instead of getting one off of Craig's List or whatever," Jennifer said.

The shelter did get some veterinary help so their surgery schedule will be back to normal soon. But of course they're still hoping for a full time vet that can help out.

As far as the overcrowding, they're in a little better shape than last week but they always operate at near capacity so they need all the adoptions they can get.